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Post by dvg on Jan 2, 2009 23:49:31 GMT -5
I heard caffeine is good for memory, at least i think I did. Better go have another cup to boost recall. Seriously, I poured coffee through a pot of N. macfarlanei x ramispina last night and am just about to pour some more through a very slow growing Wistuba villosa clone. I am hoping this will jolt the little bugger right into the stratosphere, growth-wise. Here's hoping I won't be praying later.
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Post by lloyd on Jan 3, 2009 15:49:38 GMT -5
Caffeine is also a natural insecticide.
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Post by dvg on Jan 3, 2009 16:02:28 GMT -5
I hadn't heard about caffeine, but I knew about nicotine in tobacco being very toxic to insects, especially if the variety Nicotiana rustica is used. That's the tobacco used in the native American peace pipe rituals...very powerful medicine.
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Post by vraev on Jan 3, 2009 19:04:00 GMT -5
keep us posted buddy. Thanks for trying it out on your extra plants. I might give it a shot on cephs if anything.
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Post by dvg on Jan 3, 2009 19:31:10 GMT -5
I gave a villosa the cafe treatment last night. Poor little guy had to take it black.
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Post by dvg on Jan 14, 2009 20:54:12 GMT -5
An update on the coffee test.
The N. mac x ram was the first nep I gave the coffee test to, mainly because I wasn't sure if it was still alive as three quarters of it's leaves were either yellow or yellowing, and it's growth point, although still green had not moved a bit in about five or six months. I still continued to water it but was having serious doubts as to its 'still of the living' status.
I noticed yesterday that this recently coffeed N. mac x ram is starting to unfurl it's growthpoint into a new leaf and thus reveal a new growing tip. Now I know this is probably only in the anecdotal category of proof of anything, but to get new growth less than two weeks after application, on a plant I had nearly given up on as dead, is at the very least, promising. Maybe as a tonic. I have a picture of the plant at time of application and can take more pics in three months and maybe again in half a year to show the changes in growth. I have coffeed six Neps so far, and will continue the practice on some others.
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Post by dvg on Jan 15, 2009 16:46:18 GMT -5
Yeah, once ventricosa starts growing, they will vine right out of terrarium quite quickly. You might need to get a slower growing Nep for your terrarium. N. campanulata and N. northiana are both lowland Neps that might do well in a terrarium setting, at least for a while. N. campanulata has smaller compact growth and N. northiana although it will get large, is very slow growing and doesn't need high light levels. Just some food for thought when you are considering your next Nep purchases later on this year.
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Post by prmills on Jan 15, 2009 17:15:57 GMT -5
I just tried some in my Judith Finn and cuttings of the Finn and alata. Hoping it'll help the cuttings too cause my success rate is pretty low...
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Post by dvg on Jan 17, 2009 1:00:42 GMT -5
This is a pic of the N. macfarlanei x N. ramispina that was the first nep to be coffeed by me. This pic was taken on the day of the coffee feeding. About twelve days later it resumed growth for me after having done nothing noticeable for five or six months.
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Post by lloyd on Jan 17, 2009 8:02:23 GMT -5
Did you use distilled water? How did you prepare the conconction?
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Post by dvg on Jan 17, 2009 11:28:29 GMT -5
Lloyd, to make the coffee, I used either distilled water or RO water. When I bought the coffee I looked for organic coffee first and got some Peruvian coffee beans which I ground up very fine. I also bought some pre ground Van Houtte Cafe 100% Colombian coffee, mostly because I like the flavor of Colombian coffee. Making the coffee I used one heaping teaspoon of coffee per two cups of water. No additives were put in (ie. dash of salt, cinnamon,etc.)because I was considering the plants getting the leftover java. I find that fine ground coffee is not only going to make stronger coffee, because of more surface area of the coffee granules being exposed, but also because it piles higher on the spoon. I didn't really take that into account and just fed the leftovers to my Neps regardless. When I fed them their coffee tonic, I poured the cooled coffee onto the soil surface and continued to slowly pour until the coffee started to leak out the bottom of the pot.
I hope that I have explained the procedure sufficiently. If anyone has any more questions, feel free to ask.
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Post by dvg on Feb 20, 2009 16:39:09 GMT -5
So a bit of an update on coffeeing my Neps. I guess I committed to the coffee experiment with all of my Neps. They have all been given the java elixiir, with the exception of my bicalcarata. I am kind of afraid to give it any small reason to grow bigger and faster than it already is. I have it in a terrarium with five other Neps, which are growing steadily. The bical is already strong-arming them for their lunch money. If I do anything to help it along, and probably even if I don't, I will be moving it into it's own set of digs.
But getting back to the coffee, it definitely didn't hurt my plant from what I can see. But some of the plants are looking very nice now, esp my villosa. It is looking very happy now. And the mosses and algae in some pots is growing faster and more lush also.
I don't know how effective the coffee will be in the end, but I will be watching these plants for another year to see how they fare.
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Post by vraev on Feb 20, 2009 19:08:14 GMT -5
I am planning on trying orchid fertilizer with my N.rajah to see if it will give it any boost. I am tired of leaving this plant to its own vices. Do u mind showing a before and after pic Dvg? I don't drink coffee...but seems like your technique is very non-toxic and effective. I might probably get coffee just for the plants. lol! Fertilization with nepenthes is a very thin line to tread on when using formulated fertilizers. A little fraction and the nep can stop making pitchers. Any higher..the plant can just die.
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Post by dvg on Feb 20, 2009 19:33:06 GMT -5
A lot of the experienced growers, a lot more experienced than myself, are resorting to secret fertilizer concoctions of their own making. And some of these fert. recipes are closely guarded secrets, a la the KFC recipe with it's secret recipe of 11 herbs and spices. While fertilizing Neps is interesting, I think I will stick with fruit flies and mushed up bug guts, (lovely) for the little Nep leaves without pitchers. I'll keep track of how the coffee affected them, and decide if I want to try it again in a years time. How are you planning on fertilizing yours: foliar feed or applying it in the growing medium. Foliar feeding is safer by far. I would be reluctant to fertilize the soil, until I had some more experience under my belt, or unless I had some extra rooted cuttings or basal shoots to experiment on.
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Post by vraev on Feb 20, 2009 19:51:20 GMT -5
I was thinking of foliar feeding it. yeah! I don't want to risk a media fertilization. From what I have seen, my rajah doesn't have a good root system. (YET!!). So I will take it the safer route.
You seriously mush up all that and apply it as a foliar? WOW! You truly must have a good stomach to deal with that perfume. I once cut up a wax worm by mistake from a VFT trap and oh my God!, the stench was terrible. I could still smell it a week after throwing the remains away...sheesh!!!
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